The nazar-tagh Fort

The Mazar-tagh is a mountain running from south to north in hinter land of the Taklamamakan Desert, not far from the Khotan River, occupying a communications point linking the south and the north. On the top of the Red Hill on the mountain there built an imposing fort, which covers an area of 1160 square meters. The walls of it consist of main walls, buttress and outer walls. The main walls are built with sun-dried bricks. There are some dwellings built with sun-dried bricks inside the fort, from which there ever have excavated Chinese, Tibetan and Khotanese doc uments on paper and wooden tablets. At a distance of 5 meters to the east of the fort stands a watchtower about 8 meters high. The fort dates from the Tang and Song times. Now it is listed as a major cultural site under the autonomous region protection.